"I didn't feel I was worthy. I had never looked in the mirror and told myself I was."

November 2011, was when I began thinking at the curious difference between
curing and healing, and what the word ‘incurable’ really might mean; a
young woman with a painful past introduced this to me. Jessica, then 2
weeks from her wedding to Ric, shared stories of a woman much older than
her 25 years. After escaping an abusive relationship, dropping out of
school and being diagnosed at 23 with MS, she discovered a holistic
system of disease management that requires a strict lifestyle and the
ability to self-advocate. She got married, just became a mom. She's the gentlest, most expressive person I know.

I
spent a weekend exploring Albuquerque’s weird paradigms- the psychics,
the alluringly creepy alleys, the shimmering carnival of the Marigold
Parade, the sleazy but appealing sheen of Central Avenue at 5am. Plus
here, the glorious bluff we met at, where her dog Whiskey once ran into
the Rio Grande and reappeared, mystifyingly, at a winery days later.
Albuquerque is weird, and beautiful, and hardy. So’s Jess.